Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Sat, 07 Dec 2024
Welcome back to another riveting episode of "Mick Unplugged"! Today, we have an extraordinary guest joining us—Mark Savant, a dynamic entrepreneur who transitioned from a traditional insurance career to becoming a powerhouse in podcasting and digital media. Mark's fascinating journey has led him to interview influential personalities, amass over 1.5 million views on YouTube, and establish a flourishing digital media agency. In this episode, we'll dive into Mark’s strategic approach to content creation, the importance of maintaining quality messaging, and how he leverages AI and emerging technologies to revolutionize business. From personal anecdotes of influencing local government to overcoming entrepreneurial challenges, Mark shares invaluable insights that highlight his dedication to building a legacy, inspiring the next generation, and fostering genuine human connections in a digital world. Plus, don’t miss his captivating discussion on how modern tools like AI can transform how we work and connect. So sit back, relax, and join us for an enlightening conversation with Mark Savant on "Mick Unplugged."Takeaways: · Mark Savant transitioned from an insurance career to digital media. · Quality content and messaging are crucial for success. · Agencies should focus on teaching rather than selling in their content. · Building relationships is essential for business growth. Sound Bites: · "People do business with people they like." · "Make 100 YouTube videos." · "AI turns beginners into proficient." · "Your because is your superpower." Connect and Discover LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mark-savant-ba777145 Instagram: Instagram.com/marksavantmedia Website: marksavantmedia.com Podcast: afterhoursentrepreneur.com Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC2ePGMF5jsWze1sc0Gftf4w X: marksavantmediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What inspired Mark Savant to start in digital media?
When you first started, when this became a passion for you to where you are today?
Chapter 2: How did Mark transition from insurance to podcasting?
I come from an insurance background. I've been an employee my entire life. Eventually was like, I'm listening to podcasts all the time. Let me try out a show. And within a month, I was speaking to presidential candidates, NFL players locally, the mayor of my city. I was like, this is awesome. I want to do more of this. And now I've got a thriving YouTube channel with over 1.5 million views.
I love the messaging that you have behind what you do. And to me, I think that's what creating really good content is about.
Chapter 3: What is the strategy behind going viral on YouTube?
I think that there is some value in trying to go viral. And what I mean by that is on YouTube specifically, the first thing I do before I hit record is I try to understand what the title of my episode is going to be.
And what I love about what you said, Mark, is that there's a strategy to it. And where I see people failing is there's no strategy.
One of the things I think is really important for everyone to be kind of hyper aware of what's going on in your industry, our industry trends. And what I had noted is that more leads from our business were coming in through the corporate website and being closed in a call center corporate.
Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game-changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mick.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mic Unplugged. And today's guest is a trailblazing entrepreneur and media strategist known for his innovative approach to content creation and digital branding. His passion for empowering others and his visionary leadership have made him a sought after expert in the world of digital media.
Please join me in welcoming the innovative, the visionary and the impactful, my savant and soon to be your savant, Mr. Mark Savant. Mark, how are you doing today, brother?
Nick, I'm just so honored and blessed to be here on the mic with you. Your camera looks amazing. For someone who just started their podcast in March, you are freaking crushing it, bro. Thanks for bringing me on the show.
I am honored to have you on the show. And yeah, I did start it in March, man. And it's kind of taken this crazy cool journey because I get to meet amazing people like you. And that's what I'm proud of the most is to let my guests see and hear about these extraordinary people.
Yeah, it's incredible the opportunities that you get. I mean, I've gotten the chance to talk to people like Pat Flynn, Sean Cannell, Patrick Bet-David, Dave Rubin. I've talked to presidential candidates, the mayor of our city and our county down here in South Florida. Quick funny story. I was president of the board in my condo association in Coral Springs, Florida recently.
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Chapter 4: Why is quality content crucial for success?
And there was this weird rule, this weird bureaucratic rule that you couldn't have shingles on your home in this particular little development. Although right across the street, all the homes had shingles. And we had a huge roofing project. We didn't have the budget for it. But shingles were recommended by a roofer, A, because they would be more effective.
And B, they were going to cost about half as much to execute the plan. And the city building department was like, nope, you can't do it. You can't do shingles. And so I said, you know what I'm going to do? I know the mayor. I'm friends with the mayor because I've had him on my podcast. I went into the next council meeting, went up, shook his hand, shook the hands of some commissioners.
I got a chance to just say, hey, guys, this is the deal. This is what our roofer recommends. I kid you not, Mick, the very next day we had approval for shingles for our community. Unbelievable the connections you can make through podcasting and new media.
Or you could just be Mark Savant and everybody owes you a favor. That's what I've been told. That's what I've been told.
That works, that works. Or create your own AI agent that goes around and communicates and spreads love and word, you know?
Absolutely. Mark, so again, man, honored to have you here. You are such a dynamic force in the world of digital media, social media content creation, but it just didn't happen overnight, right? So I'd love to hear a little bit about your journey to when you first started, when this became a passion for you to where you are today.
Well, I come from an insurance background. I've been an employee my entire life. My entire life was an employee. And then at about age 35, I was like, you know, I'm tired of being yelled at on the phone all the time. And I decided I was going to shift and I tried different sorts of businesses, Mick, but I eventually was like, I'm listening to podcasts all the time. I'm learning a lot.
These are fun. Let me try out a show. And within a month, I was speaking to presidential candidates, NFL players locally, the mayor of my city. I was like, this is awesome. I want to do more of this. And I just kept doing more and more of it. And now I've got a pretty mature agency with nearly a dozen team members. We're producing some of the larger shows in the fatherhood space.
We're doing a lot of YouTube. And now I've got a thriving YouTube channel with over 1.5 million views, over 5,000 subs. And it's been a real blessing and a real honor to just do this. It's so much fun.
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Chapter 5: How can agencies shift from selling to teaching in content?
Yeah. And you crank it out, man. Like I love not just the quality of your content production. I love the messaging that you have behind what you do. And to me, I think that's what creating really good content is about. Right. I feel like there's this trap. of people that are like, I need to create something viral.
And they spend so much time focusing on that, that the quality of the actual content itself, the messaging itself is lost. So I applaud you for always having great messaging on what you do, brother.
I appreciate that. And I will say, you know, on the idea of going viral, I think that there is some value in trying to go viral. And what I mean by that is on YouTube specifically, the first thing I do before I hit record is I try to understand what the title of my episode is going to be.
And on YouTube specifically, you want to make sure that there's alignment from curiosity driven by the thumbnail, clarity delivered by the title, and then confirmation delivered in the first opening hook of your video. While you shouldn't necessarily be chasing views, you should be aware of the market cap. How many people are searching for this?
What's the chance that I'm going to get in front of more eyeballs so I can actually deliver my message? And I think that it's important to understand that concept of search, volume, competition, all that matters with standing out in the YouTube world.
Wholeheartedly. And what I love about what you said, Mark, is that there's a strategy to it. Right. And where I see people failing is there's no strategy. It's just, oh, I'm going to try and be funny for 25 seconds. But then the messaging behind that isn't there. And to your point, there's no brand theme that goes along with it. Right. And again, I applaud you for that and the strategy.
I know we're going to get into some of that today as well, too. But I want to back up a little bit, man. So you started in insurance. Tell me a little bit about that, because I don't know what you know about me, but that was kind of my path as well, too, from day one of college.
Well, God bless you, man. It's a tough road. Basically, when I graduated from college, I was trying to find a job. I just couldn't find a great job, nothing I was excited about. My dad, who is a state farm agent, said, hey, Mark, why don't you come kind of learn the insurance business. You can work for me. So I got licensed pretty quickly, certified pretty quickly.
And it just started kind of running the things at the office in short order. The agency was really successful, but there were a couple of things that I noticed, Mick. And one of the things I think is really important for everyone to be kind of hyper aware of what's going on in your industry, our industry trends. And what I had noted is that
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Chapter 6: What role do human connections play in digital content?
So I'd love for you to kind of talk about what you do today specifically from a content creation branding strategy guide, because I know that there are several insurance folks that are listening to this podcast that are like, All right, my ears are perked. Let me hear the strategy that Mark's about to give me.
But what should an insurance agency owner or leadership team be doing right now to focus on content strategy and digital branding?
Well, I think the first thing that most agencies and most corporations get wrong is that they think that social media and content creation is about selling. You know, for example, I was just at a local chamber meeting. I'm going to be hosting an AI panel at the chamber next month. And I was kind of going through their Instagram.
Chapter 7: What challenges did Mark face in building his agency?
Every single Instagram post was an ad for an upcoming event or an upcoming sponsor. And I just don't know that that's the most effective way. I'll give you another example. I took on a client recently who was a hyper niche. He's one of the biggest Amazon sellers in the world. He's doing $20 million in sales on Amazon every year.
in addition to his own SaaS program, in addition to his mastermind program. And what we recognized when we got in there is we're watching his videos and all the videos were just kind of talking about join this new session, join this new program, sell this, sell that. And we went in there, we kind of revised the strategy to just be, let's teach people how to do the thing. We'll use your software.
And what we found is that by demoing, by showing, by connecting people how to do something, it just completely transformed the channel. I would say four times the views immediately. And the other thing that we switched up was the call to action. So he had had a call to action. And this kind of goes back to your original question about what should we be doing? What should our goals be?
But the original call to action that we were sharing in pinned comments and in the description was get on a call with one of our sales team members. members, right? Get on a call. And the problem with that seems so obvious, but we need to nurture people. People do business with people that they like.
And when I think about content creation, that's like, how do I connect with someone and make people feel like they're They can actually like me and know me. And so we changed that up. And immediately, now we're generating about two quality leads every single day from his YouTube channel. And this hyper-niche program, the customer lifetime value for each lead is about $1,500.
So it's kind of powerful when you stop thinking about it as an advertising tool and as a connection entertainment or teaching tool.
I totally agree with that sentiment because life, and I don't care if it's in person, through social, through whatever, life is about human connection and relationships, right? And people want to be felt, they want to be heard, and they want to be seen. And so that's part of what my strategy is, is to make sure that whatever I do, there's that human connection involved. So it's not just
oh, well, here's Mick with another post or here's Mick with another message. I try to make sure that everything has the intent of the human relationship and the human care. And again, another thing that I know that is a part of your strategy as well, because Your messaging, man, like I feel like I know Mark through the things that you do and even, you know, your podcast production.
I feel like I know your guest right through the way that you present them through the final production. So I'd love for you to talk about how important is that? Just the human feel, the humanity of the things that you do.
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Chapter 8: What is Mark's 'because' that drives his work?
Every single time I go to a conference, somebody recognizes me. Every single time. I was at Patrick David's Vault Conference last year and I was just talking to someone and this guy Abraham comes up and goes, Mark, Mark, is that you? I'm like, yeah, hey, I'm Mark. He's like, I listen to your podcast all the time. I was like, cool. It's nice to meet you. It's really cool to meet you.
A few months later, we were doing business together. He became kind of a student in one of my programs. And the following year, we were rooming together at another conference and he's referring me business. And so it's that kind of like you said, people like we talked about people do business with people they like, they know, they trust.
And when someone can watch you, hear you, listen to you, it paves that path forward. People are getting primed up. So we don't want to, I think, be selling in our programming. We want people to kind of get to know, to like us, say, I want to know a little bit more. And then we let our backend do the selling, our websites, our landing pages, our emails, our lead magnets, that sort of thing.
Yeah. You know, on Make Unplugged, we talk about your because, that thing that's deeper than your why, that thing that really is. is the core of who you are, the mission, the things that you stand for and stand by. And I'd love for you to kind of talk through what's your because? Like, what makes Mark continue to do this? What makes Mark a giver?
Because you could have easily just, you know, done your own content. focus on your own podcast, but you're such a giver and helper that you, at some point you decided I wanna help others and serve others in this. So what's Mark's because?
Wow, that's a deep question. I think, you know, for me, the biggest impetus is legacy and being an example for my children. Like I said, I was an employee my entire life. And then when my daughter hit about two or three years old, I was like, I want to set a better example. I want to build something better. And so I think a lot of it comes down to setting an example for our children.
You know, I just remember growing up, seeing my dad building his agency, going to work early, coming home, dinner with the family, and then two, three hours, opening up that Rolodex, making calls, making it happen. And he was able to carve out a great life for himself, for his family. It's empowered him to provide for various churches and homeless organizations.
My parents actually had a homeless person living in their house for nearly a decade because they wanted to invest. To me, I think it's about giving, more so about giving back to the next generation, showing this is how we treat people. This is how we build up the world in a better way. And I think that the legacy is really where that because comes from. I wanna feel valued.
I wanna feel like every time people experience me, they walk away a little bit better than they were before.
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